Back to Campus in New Normal

By Seongmin Kim

Since there are many rising questions regarding campus reopening, I’ve interviewed Mr. Beling, our Wesley High school principal, for further information concerning reopening school during COVID-19.

Q. Do you have any idea when the school will officially reopen?

A. It is impossible to say. So far there is no sign of the restrictions being raised.

Q. How is Wesley preparing for the campus to reopen?

A. We have taken a number of different actions proactively to be ready to open.

For example, we have ordered new desks and made new desks in the secondary school with protective equipment, protective glass around the desks. We have marked signs around the school to limit the directions where people travel in one way in the hallway so that people don’t cross each other.

Q. If we are ready to open, why can’t the students start attending?

A. Even though we wanted to open, we have been told by the government that we were not allowed to open. Not just open, we were not allowed to have even one student in school for classes. It has been extremely strictly applied.

Q. If the campus reopens, what will happen?

A. There will be three stages of reopening. When reopening does happen, It will happen first in high school. Then it will happen in middle school about a month or two later. Then in about a month or two later, it will be elementary. That is the information that we have received. It will not be happening at once but it will be happening in staggered form.

It will not be full contingent reopening but only a percentage of the school body. For example, even in high school, it is likely that we will get permission only for 15~20 percent of the students to be on campus at the same time.

In the past, Wesley has had classes that moved class to class for a different subject. It is likely that when we reopen, there will be less movement and teachers will move class to class. The students will stay inside. Again, part of our plans is that students will not be using lockers. They will stay in their classroom. Except for elective classes, we will limit the movement between classes as much as possible. We are trying to have minimal interaction between classes.

It is also likely that students will eat lunch in the classroom and not in the public area. They are also required to wear masks at all times--even teachers will wear a mask. We will have a strict mask policy.

School’s reopening is still uncertain, so we have to make do with what we have. Rather than being bummed, let’s, as a community, be striving to make the online school the best we can.